The Crow: Salvation (2000)

The Crow was a great film. COA was a good film. Salvation lies somewhere in between them.

The acting, though crapped on by the majority, was pretty good. Eric Mabius played a good crow, who seemed to enjoy his powers a bit and had some witty superhero-esque lines. Kirsten Dunst was nowhere near as bad as others have said she was. Actually she was damn good. Fred Ward was a GREAT bad guy, rivaling Michael Wincott from the first film. The supporting cast all filled their roles well.

Some people complain about the dialouge being terrble. Not really. Some of it was good, some of it was simply plain. One scene that stood out as absolutely terrible is the scene where Corvus persuades Erin Randell to keep her sister's necklace. I can think of ten different ways that scene could have been written better with dialogue that was not CHEESY.

There is plenty of good stuff in this film. We have a GREAT execution scene in the beginning, plenty of action,a hero you could feel sorry for, some good drama, and, yes, for all you perverts, this does have the T&A that is typical of a crow film.

If you're a fan of the franchise and not looking for anything new to be added, then you'll like this. If you didn't like the first one or are expecting something completely originally, then you should skip. I'd rank this film a 9

Fmovies: Now, the main problem with this film was the plot. It wasn't the actors, because they actually did a decent job. It wasn't the director, because it seemed like he knew what he was doing. It was the plot, plain and simple, the plot. First off, Corvis turning into the crow? No, didn't work for me. I didn't feel for these characters at all to tell the truth. The script didn't develop them as well as the first "Crow" did. So that was a major problem, I didn't feel that Corvis and Lauren had a strong love because they repeatedly showed the same loving scene between them. "Was that their only romantic moment?" I thought. See, the first "Crow" showed many memories of Shelly and Eric that were loving and touching, it showed how much they loved each other and it would never die.

Another problem I had was the make up was naturally on Corvis and didn't give any depth to his anger on the murder of his girlfriend. Kirsten Dunst seemed really out of place and was just another copy off of Sarah from the first "Crow". The villains, they were not that disturbing.

Everything just didn't go in depth enough for me to care. For the "Crow" fans, I would recommend to complete the trilogy. But to other movie fans looking for a good rent, forget it.

5/10

The first Crow-movie with Brandon Lee was great. Directed by Alex Proyas, it was stylish, entertaining and fun. However, although it had a good, sadistic villain (the excellent Richard Brooks who has an even better voice for a villain than Michael Wincott) and some fair action-scenes, the second movie was a disappointment to most people, including me.

It comes as no surprise that this third film wasn't that highly anticipated since the second one was a dud but it actually turned out to be much better than I had hoped for. Now, let me say this: I like the so-called "been there, done that"-films. When I see a good movie and I notice that it gets a sequel, I don't expect or want any new revelations to the theme of the first film. I simply want to see all the elements that made the first film great recycled in a different film. For example, I really liked "The Crow". It was fast-paced, it had a nice, brutal edge to it's violence which is rare these days, had a great hero and a great score. So when the second film came along, I didn't really want to see deep character development or some new original concept. I simply wanted to see another film about a guy who is killed and comes back to avenge his death. Unfortunately the second film was slow and boring and Vincent Perez wasn't a good hero for an action film.

So here we have the third installment to the series. Is it original? No. Does it offer any new insight to the Crow-myth? No. Should you see it if you didn't like the first Crow? No. Should you see it if you're looking for something more than a remake of the first Crow? Not really. However, if you liked the first Crow, are willing to see more or less the same story again and are a fan of violent action-films, this film will deliver.

Of course, Eric Mabius is no Brandon Lee but he is much better than Vincent Perez and he has the right look and voice for the part. He also delivers his dark oneliners effectively and while there aren't any scenes in this film that would make you laugh, there are some quite fun lines here and there.

As I already mentioned, much of the things offered here are the same as in the first Crow. So besides the cast, what has changed? The director, of course. This third film is directed by Bharat Nalluri who's visual style is somewhere between Alex Proyas and Tim Pope. The overall look of the film is still very dark and stylish and there are some scenes with a dark blue tone (which resembles the first Crow) while some other scenes are somewhat yellow (the second Crow comes to mind). There are also some nice camera angles and the action-scenes are directed quite well. The composer is also different. Graeme Revell (who's score for the first Crow is one of the best scores I've ever heard) has been replaced by Marco Beltrami (the Scream-movies). I wish they would have stayed with Revell but Beltrami does a fairly good job with the score and the songs also work well.

So overall this is a worthwhile addition to the series and I recommend it to everyone who enjoys a good action film. I wasn't expecting anything new or original, I just wanted to see a good action film and that's exactly what I got. Although far from the year's best film (it is slightly too long), this deserves an 8.

One final note, if you have a problem with violence, you probably should avoid this film. While it's nothing like Robocop, it does have a fair amount of strong violence in it and some of it might be seen as some

The Crow: Salvation fmovies. The Crow Salvation was a very entertaining movie. It has good action and violence. I think it is visual better than The Crow and it has good effects, and the story is better then The Crow. It got some plot holes and some really bad acting and writing. But if you are The Crow and action fan like me you will love this movie and don't get hooked up in the plot holes, bad acting and hopeless dialogue. And it got an awesome sound track and Kirsten Dunst is great in this movie. But it is Eric Mabius' movie and he is not just an Brendon Lee rip off. A great movie to watch a Friday night with your friends.

After murder his girlfriend(Jody Lynn O'Keefe), a young named Alex Corvis(Eric Mabius) is condemned electric chair. The execution is watched by her father(William Atherton) and her sister(Kirsten Dunst). But he returns to life and rises from death in order to seek vengeance on those who murdered his fiancée and wrongly framed him like killer and battling nasties hoodlums and corrupts policemen from inner city.As always, one time resurrected is guided by a spectral crow. Alex with tragic melancholy pulls off bloody revenge,one by one, killing violently enemies.

This is a dark , rainy, colorful film with mostly scenes developing into the night. The movie packs loads of violence, grisly killing, blood and gore. Based on the black and white comic strip by James O'Barr. Spectacular production design with strong style and creepy sepia-toned by magnificent cinematography in charge of Carolyne Chen though quite gloomy. Eerie music score by Marco Beltrani, adding heavy rock soundtrack. The motion picture is professionally directed by Bharat Nalluri, usual television movies director(Tsunami). The original movie ¨The Crow¨(1994,Alex Proyas) with Brandon Lee(died accidentally shortly before was complete) is much better, but this one is better than ¨The Crow 2: City of Angels¨(1996,Tim Pope)with Vincent Perez ,and followed by TV series with Mark Dacascos; and recently, in production, a new sequel by Rod Zombie.

The Crow: Salvation is a very good movie, not even close to being the masterpiece The Crow is but it's the best sequel you can ask for. There has been a lot of press about Salvation's release and I to am puzzled as to why it's basically direct to video, the producers blame Dimension and politics and yes Salvation is grim but I don't know how true that statement is. The Crow: Salvation is, in my opinion, the most violent of The Crow movies, some is over the top and some is pretty grim stuff but hey it's all good. Eric Mabius seemed a strange choice to some cause he doesn't have the look of what you think of as the typical Crow good guy BUT he is very good at what he does, ranging from fights to anger, sadness...all are touched upon and he delivers in all areas. Kirsten Dunst does good also, I don't think she was bad like some reviews have said, she does seem kinda off in some scenes (the graveyard comes to mind) but she does fine. It's hard to explain Fred Ward's character because it will give away plot details (which honestly isn't hard to figure out anyway) but he does well and has some funny lines also, Fred's been a cool actor for a long time playing in some quirky movies like Remo Williams, Tremors and it's sequel, and Cast A Deadly Spell. Jodie Lynn O'Keefe's role isn't big at all and she doesn't have much to do but she's beautiful and the scenes she has are effective and the scene where she and Mabius are playing around doing fake karate is cute and touching, actually that whole scene is one of my fave's especially when Alex is at her grave talking about wanting to be with her but he can't...it's really touching and sweet, yes to those confused that and the karate scene are the same...you'll understand when u see the movie. The look of Salvation is closer to part 1 than 2 was and yet it has a look all it's own, Salvation is grounded more in reality than the first 2 were but the city is still dark, gritty, and depressing, and the sets were cool...especially the execution chamber with the words on each wall. The rest of the cast does fine with what they have but it isn't much, they are all paper thin bad guys with few characteristics to distinguish differences between them other than the way they die. Which brings me back to the violence, no I don't have a problem with it and am not talking about it to warn you because violence in movies does NOT make people kill others (what movies did Hitler and Stalin watch). Yes Salvation is the most violent Crow and it's not all fun some scenes are closer to the violence in Taxi Driver than The Matrix. But we do get some cool scenes like when Alex shoots himself in the mouth and the camera goes through the mouth as the wound heals and also the scene where Alex and the Dale Midkiff character are in the car and hit a bus and both fly through the windshield but I kinda think The Crow: Salvation is a little brutal but it's all good. Credit must go to Bharat Nalluri for making a cool looking movie with pretty cool camera work and effects and also credit Marco Beltrami for making a really good score that doesn't ape Graeme Revell's but is something all it's own. The ending is really good also but I pretty much figured out who was the man with the scarred arm (which was cool but also too derivative of The Fugitive) but another cool thing was his room looked like it was out of Texas Chainsaw Massacre or the stuffing room in The Lost Boys, but anyway the end was cool how the